Established in 2010 by order of the Secretary of the Interior at the time, Ken Salazar, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is in charge of managing the United States’ offshore energy resources. This includes oil, natural gas, and renewable energy sources. An agency of the Department of the Interior, the BOEM was founded along with its sister organization, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSSE), to take over duties previously fulfilled by the Minerals Management Service. The Bureau’s current director is Elizabeth Klein.

The BOEM’s area of concern is the Outer Continental Shelf, which is a “legally defined geographic feature” of the United States. Essentially, it’s the ocean floor off both the Eastern and Western coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, and around Hawaii and Alaska. It works with the BSSE to make the ...